After the state titles a couple of the Dolphins went for a little drive further north and bumped into the legend that is MickD, he was very polite and put up with my boat for a whole day before he politely suggested I park the Devil in the garage and we take his Milligan out for the next days fishing.

So we did. Thanks Mick we had a fun couple of days.

Pics are of Evans Black Kingie, it went 41kg. Awesome couple of dives on this tremendous fish, Evan knew what he was doing to bring the fish in and still the fish was too big, taking off with all his kit for some 20 minutes before the float popped up tomb stoning. Cheers went up all around the boat. I was privileged to be there to see the black behemoth in the flesh. Check out its chopped Dorsal fin and the shark bite scar tissue on its flank from previous altercations.

Evan’s CobiaEvan’s Cobia

The yank has been in form lately the past 6-8 weeks. 28kg Spanish, 31kg Jew, 17kg wahoo and then the 90 pound cobia. Good stuff buddy not bad for a crappy Sydney fleabag diver.

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The NSW Championships this year were hosted by the Central Coast Sea Lions. A rock hopping only event this year’s championship saw great conditions with near flat seas and slight winds complemented with viso ranging from 8-14m saw two great days of rock hopping for the 49 keen competitors. The scoresheet was held under Sydney Metro Zone scoresheet. Seven Dolphins made the trek up to the Central Coast and were well rewarded.

Day 1: Bateau Bay

So with zero knowledge of where to swim here, I went looking for a few of my old mates from the Sea Lions, big wave surfer and charter operator Ian Stewart didn’t let me down and gave some great advice to the Dolphins on the terrain we could encounter. Benny Bayfield rocks up now grinning from ear to ear, he has been scouting the coastline and has devised a plan, which involved a lot of running, with this event if you choose you can go on foot a distance before entering the water.

At the start many divers run down the steep hill and turn left and right, I waited up the top to see who went where and I decided then to get away from the masses and to stroll along the path and turned left awhile before entering the surf, a lucky choice of direction as I landed 14 species with 563 points (90%).

Peter Saunders – 4.4kg Giant Boarfish NSW State Championships 2014

Ex Dolphins member and President of the USFA Peter Saunders had the overall lead with 11 fish including a cracking 4.4 kilo Giant Boarfish, probably the best fish I have seen weighed in a comp in a few years. It was good for me to see two V’s (Veterans) at the top of the leader board.

Ben Bayfield (79%), Dez (68%) and Evan (66%) were all still in the hunt for Day 2. I had a feeling the fitness of these guys would show on Day 2 with the location being announced at the weigh in – Norah Head, “The Bull” is offshore a little and it would be a drag race to see who could get their first.

Day 2: Norah Head

Derrick, Evan, Simon, Ben & Patrick – NSW State Championships 2014

What a race! Evan had winged feet and took off like a shot dog, his Banks Board strapped over his shoulders. Spearos were saying in disbelief as they reached the top of the stairs at the Lighthouse “hey that guy is over-arming out to the Bull!” That’s how fast Evan was to the water before everyone else and he had the Bull to himself for a while.
When I finally arrived to the Bull, one hour later… there were great fish all over it, and many of the competitors elected to fish here. One interesting specie landed was Parry Gryllis 1100gm Spotted Sweetlip, a fish not common in Sydney. I saw all of our guys out at the Bull, Pat Mullins our champion Grand Master had some bad luck with a stuck spear and he spent 30 minutes dislodging it. Parry and Paul ‘Mudcrab’ Marsh had great scores and PB’s on the day, they fished very keenly. The Bondi Brats or Maroubra Marauders, or as Roso calls them the “that tinny trio!” each had a great strategy and I witnessed how hard they were fishing.

Ben Bayfield – NSW State Champion – 2014

Derrick pulling out a great 710pts with second on the day and 95%, however it was Benny’s day and being consistent with 659pts and 88% had the edge on Dez from Day 1 to take out his first NSW Open Spearfishing Championships.

Derrick 2nd, Evan 3rd & Ben 1st – NSW State Championships 2014

I took out the Veterans Championship by the skin of a bee’s’; Pat Mullins is the Grand Master Champion; we had four Dolphins in the top 10; Ben winning Seniors as well, with Dez 2nd and Evan 3rd. Paul ‘Mudcrab Marsh was 15th ans Parry 19th overall. If ‘the 3 Amigos’ had remembered to fill out their 3 man team sheet they would have smashed that trophy as well by several hundred points.

Thanks to the Sea Lions and Al Cooke their President in particular for hosting the event. Al was very appreciative of the Dolphins as we all assisted in scores on Day 1 with him and ran a set of scales on Day 2. Well done guys!

Top 10 NSW Championships 2014

Next year the Championships will be held in the South Coast of NSW and is always well attended as the locations are very desirable spearfishing areas. I hope to see you all there.

Conditions: Westerly winds with strong gusts up to 25knots during the competition, a North Easter did appear out of nowhere approximately 11am to 11.40am where the breeze swung back to the West and increased steadily throughout the day. Seas pancake flat with a non-existent swell up until the NorEaster came rising to about 1m dying out as quickly as the wind change did. Harbour was choppy later in the day. Visibility was excellent south up to 20m while North was so-so. South today was the way to go with those running north not overly happy.

The Dolphins had 19 sign on and weigh in, the Dragons surprisingly, where we thought they would come out en masse, had only 10 members, many believing the event would be cancelled and not bothering to get out of bed. We smashed them, everywhere, overall points 3975 to their 2769.

GPS Marks

Dolphin’s Junior, son of a gun Aaron Puckeridge continued his fine form taking out his successive Alliman with a splendid 22 species and 990 points. Quite achiever Derrick Cruz runner up with a solid 888 points and 16 species there were some splendid fish in his catch. Ian Puckeridge 3rd 845 points; Grizzly Whaler Steve Wayne made an appearance to land 813 points for 4th. Paul “Mud Crab” Marsh gaining a PB with 517 and 5 species of Leather Jacket for 11th, Sam Krywulycz also a PB score with 471 and 14th overall.

Pete’s Deep Body is a sensational fish and it ties with 3 others of the same weight going back to the 80’s, amazing, the three spearos all former much loved characters being Froggo Goldsmith, Dave Andrews and “Rocky” Rob Thomas, Rocky came to the 60th.

Special mention made to the Harbour master, Scotty Bailey whose boat always contributes along with Wade’s Seydel very important harbour species. Alex Delpopolo just missing out on a club record Fan Belly weighing just shy of the 800gms that is the current record.

The Dolphins won the 4 man Team convincingly with over 3300pts scored. Overall we lead the competition by 3 points with the Dragons in second place. Derrick is leading the Open individual Championship, Benny Bayfield close behind and breathing down their necks is Evan Leeson in 3rd other Dolphins feature in the Top 20. Nine Dolphins in the top 20, just fantastic!

Parry and Dave manning the scales

Thanks to Parry & Dave Rogers for doing the scales, and Pat Mullins, who is in fine form and came 16th on the day, for keeping us all entertained as always.

Hope to see you all with sharp spears, and wits, at the next one at Gunnamatta Bay.

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A few of the guys headed up the North coast of NSW in March. Here is the report from Ben Lake.

Jeffro, Marty and I drove up to the North Coast on Thursday night. Jeffro managed to safely navigate us out the bar in the shiny red Seydel each morning (on a low tide) under some challenging conditions and we dove Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Jeffro’s Spanish Mackerel & Gold Spot

Overall the conditions were good with surprisingly few boats out at the islands and viso up to about 20 metres in parts.

We all managed a new species on the trip: Jeffro – Gold Spot Wrasse, Marty – Spanish Mac and Bluebar, Ben – Cobia. There were good numbers of Spanish around and we managed 14 over the three days. We all got visual on Wahoo a couple of times but we didn’t manage to boat one (lessons learned by Marty and Ben). Jeffro said it’s not his fault he didn’t shoot one as ‘we spooked the school taking pot shots’…. Marty and I say they must have been bigger than we realised!

It was a shame that more of you couldn’t make it up, but I’d encourage you to try and make the effort to get a crew and boat together and go.

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Our final & Annual General Meeting of 2013 congratulated the committee on a great year. The Dolphins still hold the Alliman Shield thanks to a 3 all draw with St George but since we had the shield in 2012 we keep it this year.

Evan Leeson – Club Champion 2013, from left Rex Oxgood (2nd ever club champ), John Black (3rd club champ, multiple state and Australian Champion), Fred Nann (first club champion, first president, first life member), Bill Richmond (foundation member and our first secretary)

The 2013 Club Championship results are finalised and congratulations goes to Evan Leeson taking out the Club Championship just barely in front of the 2013 Alliman Champion and club runner up Derrick Oscar Cruz.

The Dolphins 60th Birthday party was a truly awesome event with some amazing people coming along from previous club generations. There will be a separate post on that soon with some photos and video of the day. There are plenty of shirts and stubbie holders for sale which will be available at the club meetings or just contact the new merchandise officer Ben Bayfield.

The 2014 Committee was voted in and is already working hard on various things. First on the list is the Social Events for the year. Allot of thought has been put into this to get to the right places when fish and weather is likely to be in favour so do your best to get time off or a pass from the boss to get to these events.

High on the list of priorities in the social events is pairing up newer divers with veterans to pass on knowledge and experience. This has proven in the past to build membership numbers and earn us competition wins. You can see all the events for the year on our Google Calendar. Simon Trippe has made a nice one page Calendar if you prefer.

Our annual club trip to South West Rocks was approaching and the anticipation was growing, as tales of past adventures to this fantastic part of the NSW coast were being told over a few refreshments at the club house. South West Rocks is one of those destinations where dreams run wild and anything can happen. The time had come with around 15 divers making their way up the coast. The forecast looked challenging to say the least. But everyone was more than keen for the annual trip up to such an awesome spot.

Alex Lewis with a 17kg Sampson Fish & Evan Leeson with a 4kg Blue Bar Parrot and 1.2kg Moses Perch on the 2013 South West Rocks Trip

Day one and we had 3 boats in the water (one traveling up to Coffs Harbour), eager to make that early grab of some quality fish. The usual runs were made to the usual spots and we were met with big easterly swells which made it very difficult to escape. The days diving was very difficult with very few fish being speared. The boys managed some excellent Kings and some great fish were seen such as Jewies and Spanish Mackerel. Conditions began to worsen as forecasted, with weather conditions deteriorating we called it a day. Alex Lewis and Evan Leeson doing better in Coffs Harbour with a 17kg Sampson fish speared by Alex, and a 4kg Blue Bar Parrot and 1.2kg Moses Perch speared by Evan.

Cohan Jones with a 13 kg Yellowtail Kingfish on the 2013 South West Rocks Trip

With talk of poor conditions for the Saturday the boys managed to take the night off and relax with a Rum or 2 with little talk of waking early the next morning. It was a chance to catch up with great mates and swap stories. A great highlight of dive trips away as most would know is getting away.

Day 2 and a few got out to test their luck with as expected very poor conditions with water surge throwing divers around like a rag doll from top to bottom in the water column. With fleeting hope and over two metre seas a short attempt was made to fill the esky, which was shortly followed with a long attempt to empty the drink esky. So we settled in for another night, and joined the locals down at the pub for a feed and refreshments.

Day 3 for most was packing up and heading off to rejoin normal life back in Sydney. A few guys managed to drag themselves out of bed early enough to excellent kings being speared (who also had some kingy luck on day one). Fish they shot over the weekend include Emanuel Bova 18 kg, Cohan Jones 13 kg, Paul Scimone 12 kg and David Rogers 5 kg.

With such a great weekend away with a great bunch of mates, poor weather rarely dampens spirits. And I’m sure all would agree just getting away and having a laugh with mates is always the highlight of the trip. With good fish being an awesome bonus!

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You are invited to attend the Sans Souci Dolphins 60th Birthday Party. Everyone welcome. Dolphins old and new, families, other club & non club spearos.

Cost: Adults $40 on the day. $30 pay in advance. Kids Free. Family day, with a Jumping Castle, Face Painting. You pay for your own drinks at the bar, however the dolphins will supply some beer, wine and waters but be early.

When: Saturday December 14th 11am to late.
Sunday recovery breakfast BBQ. Bring a tent or caravan if you wish to camp the night. Plenty of room.

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XMAS in July – Dolphins Style

This month meeting is on Tuesday the 16th July and we will be having a XMAS in July Seafood feast. We’ll have a raffle on the night as well. List of prizes to come.

Anyone who bring a quality fish for the BBQ will get 3 free tickets. Fillets accepted, but I said quality fish. Fillets will be inspected by seniors to ascertain species. No Silver Drummer Fillets please…

Come along, bring your Santa hat and catch up on what’s going on around the scene.

Member Videos

There are a few new videos added to the Video section of the site. Thanks to Scuba Pete and Paul Marsh.

Australia vs South Africa 17 – 25 May 2013

As most of us know our own Derrick Cruz and Evan Leeson were part of the three man Australian team in South Africa. Derrick Cruz won the visiting international competitors trophy.

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Taken in 1962 at Rottnest Island WA. Fred Nann is wearing his first wetsuit made by Torpedo and a brandishing a homemade gun by Bernie Harbour. The gun was used for over 15 years. Thanks to Fred’s daughter Vicki Nann for the photo

Fred was the original founding member for the Dolphins it’s first president and first Life member. He later moved to WA in his late 20’s, where he did a record freedive at the time recorded at 110ft, he was also charged with having a powerhead over there in the early 60’s.
When you are having a quite beer or coffee have a read of it, 11 pages of good times. Amazing how had core these boys all were in the 50’s and early 60’s. We got nothin’ on them really, we are spoilt.

Born in Sydney at St. George Hospital Kogarah on the 12/9/1935, one of four children of Frederick Robert and Dorothy La Vere Nann. Resided at Walter Street and then Darley Street Sans Souci until 1959.